The baked, stuffed potato skin came from the chain restaurant world, but that doesn't necessarily make it terrible. This version borrows the basic premise and works a New Orleans taste in. Small peeled fresh shrimp are often a bargain and pretty good; this dish puts them to work.

1. Select only potatoes without any serious blemishes. Scrub the skins well with a brush or curly scrubber under cold running water.

2. Bake the potatoes till a little underdone--about 45 minutes.

3. After they cool, slice the potatoes from end to end in two. Scoop a little more than half the white part out of each potato half. Save what you scoop out for mashed potatoes.

4. Heat a tablespoon of the butter in a skillet over high heat. Sauté the shrimp, tasso, and green onions until the shrimp turn pink--just a couple of minutes at most.

5. Chop the shrimp and tasso mixture roughly, with a knife (don't use a food processor).

6. Turn on the broiler. Brush the insides of the potato tops and bottoms with butter. Broil the potatoes until you see a little browning around the edges.

7. Spoon into each potato skin about two tablespoons of the shrimp-and-tasso mixture. Top with enough shredded cheese to almost, but not quite cover. Return to the broiler until the cheese begins to bubble.

8. Mix the sauce ingredients. Serve the potato skins with the sauce on the side for dipping.

Politics has never been about telling the truth, it's about convincing others to believe your story.

I have had many a fine meal at Pascal's Manale. It's off the beaten path, but worth it

Today is Barbecue Shrimp Day. It won't be a national celebration, because a) no other part of the country has shrimp as fine as the white shrimp we have right now and 2) no other place understands that "barbecue shrimp" is a misnomer. There's no smoke, grill, or thick sauce. Instead, they're cooked with a sauce Richard Collin once described as "all the butter in the world, and half the pepper." A little garlic, Worcestershire, and paprika are in there, too.

The dish was invented at Pascal's Manale in 1954, when a customer asked Pascal Radosta to duplicate a shrimp dish he had in Chicago. The resulting dish wasn't like the one this guy had found, but he liked it even better. Barbecue shrimp soon became the signature dish at Manale's, where most tables include at least one order of the things.

It's essential for barbecue shrimp to be made with large, intact, unpeeled shrimp (about 10-20 to the pound), with heads, shells, tails, and everything else still there. Much flavor comes from the juices and fats in the head. Whole shrimp this size, drenched in sauce, are a mess to eat. Especially if you insist on peeling the shrimp. (I just pull the heads off and eat the rest, shells and all--although I do not recommend this to you.)

Chef Gerard Maras made a major improvement in barbecue shrimp in the 1980s, during his tenure at Mr. B's. His trick: whisking in the butter at the end of the cooking process. Emeril Lagasse developed the only good peeled version of barbecue shrimp, making a very intense stock out of the heads and shells, and incorporating it back into the butter sauce. It's a great idea, but a lot of work.

Politics has never been about telling the truth, it's about convincing others to believe your story.

A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday.In many historically Christian countries, buns are traditionally eaten hot or toasted on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the Crucifixion.They are believed by some to pre-date Christianity, although the first recorded use of the term “hot cross bun” was not until 1733.It is believed that buns marked with a cross were eaten by Saxons in honour of the goddess Eostre (the cross is thought to have symbolised the four quarters of the moon); “Eostre” is probably the origin of the name “Easter”.Others claim that the Greeks marked cakes with a cross, much earlier."

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

1. Remove the casings from the sausages. Break the sausage into a skillet over medium heat. Cook while working the sausage into small pieces with a kitchen fork, until the sausage begins to brown. Pour off any excess fat.

2. Add the crushed red pepper, oregano, and salt. Add 1/2 cup of water, turn the sausage and continue to break up the pieces until all the pink is gone.

3. Add the parsley and bread crumbs and mix in well. Add a little water or chicken stock if needed to keep the mixture from being very dry. (It should not be very wet, either.) Remove from the heat.

4. While the sausage is cooking, remove the stems from the mushrooms. Slice off a sliver the size of a dime from the top of the mushroom cap to make a flat area.

5. While the sausage mixture is still warm, use a teaspoon to stuff the bottom of each mushroom. Pile as much stuffing on as will stay in place, with some perhaps crumbling off. Place the mushrooms stuffing side up on a baking pan. Top with a generous pinch of the shredded cheese (as much as you can get to stay put) on top of the stuffing.

6. Broil until the cheese melts and begins to brown. Remove and serve very hot.

Politics has never been about telling the truth, it's about convincing others to believe your story.

Today in 1862, in the midst of the Battle of Antietem, a sergeant and one other soldier pulled a wagonload of food and hot coffee through Confederate fire to nourish an Ohio Union regiment. It was the bloodiest single day of battle in the history of the United States, with at least 23,000 soldiers killed. The sergeant was promoted by his colonel to lieutenant for his pluck. The sergeant was William McKinley. The colonel was Rutherford B. Hayes. Each later became President. So, if you want to get ahead, bring the working people some food and coffee.

Politics has never been about telling the truth, it's about convincing others to believe your story.

A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday.In many historically Christian countries, buns are traditionally eaten hot or toasted on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the Crucifixion.They are believed by some to pre-date Christianity, although the first recorded use of the term “hot cross bun” was not until 1733.It is believed that buns marked with a cross were eaten by Saxons in honour of the goddess Eostre (the cross is thought to have symbolised the four quarters of the moon); “Eostre” is probably the origin of the name “Easter”.Others claim that the Greeks marked cakes with a cross, much earlier."

I always ate Hot X Buns because mine always seemed to rotated an eighth of a turn for some reason.

It's Fried Eggplant Day. There seems to be wide agreement as to what constitutes perfect fried eggplant: a greaseless, dark-brown exterior with a bread-crumb crust and a light interior. This can be had by cutting the eggplant either into disks or sticks, but the sticks--perhaps because of their resemblance to French fries--are more popular. Especially when they're cut very long, as they can be if you utilize the entire length of the eggplant.

Two problems. First, eggplant can be bitter, especially if there are many seeds inside. You can tell this without cutting the eggplant by noting the size of the scar left on the bottom of the eggplant (the end opposite the stem). The bigger that blotch is, the more seeds in the eggplant, and therefore the more likely it is to be bitter.

The second problem is that nothing soaks up oil like eggplant. Here's how to keep that under control. First, coat the eggplant with a dusting of flour then egg wash before applying the seasoned bread crumbs. Second, fry the eggplant in very hot oil--about 385 degrees. That will result in a very dark color on the outside, but the inside cooks so quickly that the oil won't have a chance to get in.

Fried eggplant is usually served with Parmesan cheese to shake over them and a marinara sauce to dip them in. Or, in the old Creole places, with a dish of powdered sugar (to kill the bitterness). I like them with Bearnaise sauce or even a light garlic mayonnaise.

Politics has never been about telling the truth, it's about convincing others to believe your story.